The FCC approved a (NPRM) that lays out proposed rules and asks for public comment on so-called incentive auctions, in which U.S. television stations would voluntarily give up their spectrum in exchange for proceeds from auctions of that spectrum. The NPRM is the first step in a long process at the FCC, with the agency projecting that auctions to mobile carriers would happen in 2014.

With the FCC moving forward on the world's first incentive auctions, "this is a big deal," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. "The world is watching."

The auctions will involve a complicated three-step process, with television stations offering their spectrum in a reverse auction, the FCC reconfiguring the remaining TV spectrum to gain efficiency, and finally, the FCC auctioning the available spectrum to mobile carriers.

The incentive auctions will address a coming spectrum crunch and will help carriers provide better mobile service, with fewer dropped calls and fewer spinning pinwheels on mobile browsers, Genachowski said.

The auctions would also give the U.S. a "strategic bandwidth advantage," in a global race, he added. "Success will unleash waves of innovation that will go a long way toward determining who leads our global economy in the 21st century."